Voice Over the Rainbow: Eva Cassidy 60

Eva Cassidy - Woodstock

I'm inaugurating February with this milestone birthday celebration of someone who left us far too soon, but who left quite a mark in their limited lifetime.

As well, another one of those superstars that never got much of anything in the way of recognition while they were alive, but once they were gone they became almost household nomenclature.

That someone with her prodigious talent played mostly to audiences of six people when she was around makes you scratch your head.... and wish you had been one of those six people.

I think she failed to get over initially due to the idea that she was a monumental interpreter of songs when that style was way out of vogue.

She died at 33 from cancer in 1996, just as she was beginning to take off careerwise.

I was introduced to her music by a neighbor next door in West Oakland about 20 years ago, and in that time she's only become more beloved in the wider world.

There are almost zero archival or unissued items relating to her, owing largely to the fact that she labored in near obscurity while alive so there are precious few tapes.

She did, however, frequently play this restaurant in her adopted home of Annapolis, Maryland.

Thankfully someone taped her, one time, as she delivered a powerful 90 minute set to an enraptured audience of roughly four patrons and the wait staff.

Even better, they did so from the mixing desk, resulting in a somewhat rough-sounding -- but highly representative -- full concert of the immaculate Eva Cassidy.

Eva Cassidy

Pearl's

Annapolis, Maryland USA

9.14.1994

CD1

01 If I Give My Heart

02 Woodstock

03 Early Morning Rain

04 Imagine

05 Summertime

06 People Get Ready

07 American Tune

08 I Wish I Was a Single Girl

09 Wayfaring Stranger

10 Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

11 Kathy's Song

CD2

01 Autumn Leaves

02 Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain

03 Bold Young Farmer

04 Wade In the Water

05 Songbird

06 The Water Is Wide

07 Tennessee Waltz

08 Drown In My Own Tears

09 My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose

10 Bridge Over Troubled Water

11 Over the Rainbow

Total time: 1:27:23

Eva Cassidy - guitar & vocals

mono soundboard recording of indeterminate origin

retracked, slightly edited for dead air and denoised -- with dropouts repaired -- by EN, February 2023
266 MB FLAC/direct link

I worked on this show all day yesterday, removing tons of noises and digital pops and clicks along the way. No kind of treble-killing Noise Reduction was used because I hate it.

I might be back tomorrow with the first Black History Month post, if this show I'm about to deal with isn't a mess.

But I'd have been remiss if I'd missed Miss Eva's big 60th, so I'm posting this cleaned up version of her only real bootleg so all y'all will remember what it's like to hear someone sing that doesn't need Autotune!--J.

2.2.1963 - 11.2.1996